Action today on NJ environmental legislation

A bill eliminating the state sales tax on purchases of vehicles with a fuel efficiency ratings of 40 miles-per-gallon or better was released today by the Senate Environment Committee.

The legislation, S-756, sponsored by committee members Jennifer Beck (R-Monmouth) and Robert Gordon (D-Bergen), covers vehicles with a sales price of $40,000 or less. The measure now goes to the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee for review.

Also released from committee was (SR-46), a resolution sponsored by Committee Chair Bob Smith D-Middlesex and committee member Kip Bateman (R-Somerset). It urges the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council to establish new artificial reefs in New Jersey coastal waters for commercial fishing. Recreational and commercial fishermen have been squabbling for years over who gets to use the existing artificial reefs and what equipment can be employed there. The bill is an attempt to create additional reefs to lessen the opportunities for conflict.

The committee postponed a vote on S-239 (Bateman) which requires all new school construction in New Jersey to follow green-building guidelines. The legislation has been slowed by a debate over whether the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED standards should be the state’s sole guideline for environmental school design, or whether other standards, like Green Globes, should be accommodated.

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Environmental Events Calendar for NJ & PA
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If environmental legislation is important to you, check out our daily newsletter, EnviroPolitics. It tracks every piece of environmental legislation in New Jersey and Pennsylvania–from introduction, through committee action and floor votes, all the way to the governor’s desk. EnviroPolitics also keeps you up to speed on all major environmental news and issues–and environmental regulations, too.

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Need help bringing your energy idea to market?


Do you have a idea for a breakthrough energy-efficiency technology that has the potential to come to market quickly?

PSE&G and the New Jersey Sustainable State Institute at Rutgers University want to hear
about it.

If your brainstorm matches what they’re looking for, you could share in some $8 million in grant money available to pay the cost of your energy-efficiency demonstration project.

It’s all part of a $190 million approved last summer by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities to support the state’s economic development goals and to bring energy efficiency to utility customers.

For more, including Eligibility Guidelines and information about the Application Process, check out our Enviro-Business News page.

While you’re there, sign up for free email updates.

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Jon Corzine on Toyota, deficit, Goldman Sachs

In a Bloomberg Television interview yesterday, former New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine fielded questions on a range of topics, from Toyota’s crisis and the federal deficit, to the proposed tax on banks, and his old firm, Goldman Sachs.

On the current economic crisis, Corzine said that “states bear an incredible brunt” and, because of constitutionally required balanced budgets, must consider “all types” of cost reductions, including
” headcounts, furloughs, wage cuts, wage give-backs, pensions and benefits and cuts in programs–including some that people find most valuable.”

Corzine said that his administration made a number of those cuts during his four years in office, “which doesn’t make you very popular,” and added that the new governor (Chris Christie) “is taking even stronger steps to cut.”

“And it’s got to be done,” he said, “and it’s going to be done in every state.”

Check out the full interview below:

Our most recent posts:
Enviros: EPA understates coal ash problem
Environmental Events Calendar for NJ & PA
EPA sets air limits for stationary diesel engines
NJ Gov. Chris Christie’s Budget Remarks
The natural gas land rush is on in NY and PA

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Enviros: EPA understates coal ash problem

A home in Harriman, Tenn., sits in ruins after a retention pond wall collapsed Dec. 22, 2008, at a power plant, releasing a mixture of water and coal ash waste that flooded 15 homes. (J. Miles Cary/Knoxville News Sentinel/AP)


A study by two environmental advocacy groups claims that coal ash waste contamination nationwide is far worse than indicated by a new Environmental Protection Agency tally, with dozens more ash-waste ponds and landfills also leaching toxins into streams and drinking water.


At least 31 “new damage cases” not listed by the EPA in its end-of-the-year tally of 70 coal-ash pollution sites are identified and their pollution profiled in a report (Out of Control: Mounting Damages from Coal Ash Waste Sites) released Wednesday by the Environmental Integrity Project and Earthjustice groups.

The study identified 31 sites across 14 states, including one in Delaware and six in Pennsylvania.

The Christian Science Monitor reports that the groups identified the sites by assembling contamination data from state files using “similar criteria” to those sites the EPA had already identified. Arsenic, selenium, and boron were among the dangerous chemicals found to have “migrated off” nearly half of the 31 sites where coal-fired power plants store their coal ash, according to the study.

Contaminated water from coal-ash chemicals was found to be washing into streams and leaching into groundwater, including drinking water supplies. The sources were found to include many “dry landfill” and “structural fill” (areas where coal ash is seen as beneficial) ash impoundments, not just the wet retention-pond-type fills used by the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston plant, which spilled an estimated 1 billion gallons of sludge across 300 acres of rural Tennessee just over a year ago.

Related environmental news:
Report: Contamination from coal ash waste is worse than EPA says
EPA’s coal ash regulations still aren’t set


Enviros: EPA understates coal ash problem Read More »

Environmental Events Calendar for NJ & PA


We just updated our Enviro-Events Calendar.

It contains lots of great environmental forums, seminars and other educational opportunities on a wide variety of subjects–from smart growth planning and site remediation professional training to a presentation on Water Security and Global Policy and the economic impact of natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale.

If you like workshops, you’ll find one on converting your gas guzzler into an electrical model or creating a rain barrel for your back yard and garden.

There are plenty of outdoor events, too, like winter wilderness survival and animal tracking–even a bicycle summit.

Whether your goal is education, recreation or environmental business networking, you’re likely to find something in our
Enviro-Events Calendar that fits the bill.

Best of all, our list is updated daily. So if what’s there today doesn’t tickle your fancy, tomorrow’s additions just might.

Rather than trying to remember to check in regularly, we’ll send you email alerts when the list is updated.

How? Just type “enviro-calendar” in the subject line of an email and send it to:
enviro-calendar@aweber.com

In seconds, you’ll receive a confirmation email. Just click on the web link inside the message (an anti-spam measure) and you’re good to go.

Oh, don’t forget to check our calendar when you’re planning your next event. It might prove helpful in selecting a date that doesn’t conflict with a competing event.

And be sure to send us your event information. We’ll post it to the calendar without charge.

Questions? Contact us at: Editor@EnviroPolitics.com or leave a message: 215-295-9339.

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Week’s top environmental news in NJ, PA & NY

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EPA sets air limits for stationary diesel engines

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today issued a final rule setting standards to reduce emissions of formaldehyde, benzene, acrolein and other toxic air pollutants from an estimated 900,000 stationary diesel engines.

The engines are used primarily to generate electricity and power equipment at industrial, and other facilities.

They also are used in emergencies to produce electricity and to pump water for flood and fire control.

The new emission limits apply to existing diesel engines meeting certain criteria for age size and use.

To meet the new requirements, owners and operators of the largest of the engines will be required to install emissions controls such as catalysts to emission exhaust systems.

The rule does not apply to emergency engines used at most residences, hospitals and other institutional facilities and commercial facilities such as shopping centers.

Related:
Reciprocating engines – EPA fact sheet

EPA sets air limits for stationary diesel engines Read More »

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